The first boat was a 19′ Triumph that we would run out of the Chicago Harbors. This boat was a great starter boat for salmon fishing. The Triumph was easy to trailer and with the back wide open was easy to setup a full spread of rods ideal for salmon fishing. I had 2 cannon downriggers to get down to the salmon. A basic Garmin Fish Finder that later got upgraded to a Furuno. The boat was fast and used Very little fuel which was good because I didn’t have a lot of money to fish all day every weekend. I took the Triumph 15 miles offshore many times and if the seas kicked up on Lake Michigan the boat did extremely well holding up to what Lake Michigan had to throw at it. I had made several rod holders including DIY Rod trees with Square Tubing for running lots of rods trolling for salmon. I typically went out alone because very few people liked to fish for salmon as much as I did.

What I learned from fishing from a small boat was how to open up the back to minimize tangles and how to make the most out of size. Also on most days the fish never cared how big your boat was. Now that I have the big Charter Boat fishing Lake Michigan isn’t all the different. I still setup the boat similar to a smaller boat but now the back of the boat is WIDE OPEN. I can also fish in much worse conditions in the new boat because of the size and width makes it a tank so the boat in waves fishes more consistently. Either way no matter what size boat its just great to fish out of Chicago for Salmon and Trout.